The Effects of Need for Cognition, Hedonism and Materialism on ...

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An impulse buying tendency (IBT) is characterized by hedonic shopping motivation, materialism .... sample size was relatively small, it seems plausible to further explore this .... buying. Journal of Economics and Business, 9(1), 3-15. Dittmar, H.
Journal of European Psychology Students, 2013, First Work in Progress Special Edition, 25-32

To Think, to Feel, to Have: The Effects of Need for Cognition, Hedonism and Materialism on Impulse Buying Tendencies in Adolescents Samuel Lins, University of Porto, Portugal Ezra Bottequin, University of Geneva, Switzerland Ádám Dóka, University of Budapest (ELTE), Hungary Agata Golasa, Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Poland Frida Hylander, Lund University, Sweden Ana Merchán, University of Almería, Spain Ana Odabašić, University of Belgrade, Serbia Sara Pavlović, University of Zagreb, Croatia Received: 12.05.2013 | Accepted: 13.07.2013

In industrialized countries, teenagers are likely to engage in consumerism, given the influence of their peers and the media. Consumer behaviour is often irrational, as shown by research on impulse buying. An impulse buying tendency (IBT) is characterized by hedonic shopping motivation, materialism and need for cognition (NC). We hypothesize (1) that hedonism mediates the relationship between materialism and IBT; (2) a negative correlation between NC and IBT; (3) that NC moderates the relationship between hedonism and IBT, as well as between materialism and IBT. We will collect data from six countries with participants being adolescents 13–18 years old. Keywords: need for cognition, hedonic shopping motivation, materialism, impulse buying tendencies, adolescents, cross-cultural study, consumer behaviour

The vast majority of individuals in industrialized

irrational in that it is not always based on a cost-benefit

countries purchase goods and services in order to fulfil

analysis, as shown in part by research on impulse buying, a

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their needs and desires. Consumer behaviour is often Correspondence

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Frida Hylander [email protected]

widespread phenomenon in modern society (Wood, 1998). Rook and Fisher (1995) define impulse buying as "a consumer's tendency to buy spontaneously, without reflection, immediately (. . .) stimulated by the physical proximity of the desired object, dominated by emotional

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attraction and absorbed towards the promise of instant

between materialism and compulsive buying, there is also

gratification" (p. 306). Impulse buying tendency (IBT)

evidence for a positive relationship between materialism

refers to the degree to which an individual is likely to

and impulse buying. For instance, Troisi, Christopher, and

make an impulse purchase of products in general (Jones,

Marek (2006) demonstrated that highly materialistic

Reynolds, Weun, & Beatty, 2003).

people had higher IBTs; furthermore, they argued that materialistic people buy possessions because of the positive

It should be noted that impulsive and compulsive buying

sensation it provides. Different lines of work posit that

are terms that have often been used interchangeably (e.g.

materialism is a strategy for alleviating the adverse effects

Dittmar, Beattie, & Friese, 1996), yet they should be

of having unfulfilled psychological needs by enhancing

distinguished because they differ in their frequency, cause,

self-esteem (e.g., Dittmar, Beattie, & Friese, 1996). Thus:

outcome and severity

(Faber, 2010). Nevertheless,

impulsive and compulsive buying are related and it is therefore possible to assume that they are affected in

Hypothesis 1: Materialism should be positively related to IBT.

similar ways by the same variables.

Emotional Attraction: Hedonic Shopping In the present study, we incorporated the three psychological constructs underlying impulse buying,

Motivation

according to our understanding of Rook and Fisher's

Consumption activities can be motivated by hedonic

(1995) definition, into a model, which are materialism,

and/or utilitarian outcomes (Babin, Darden, & Griffin,

hedonism and need for cognition (NC). Although Rook and

1994). Previous research suggests that impulse buying

Fisher's definition of impulse buying is one of the most

rather involves hedonic motives (Rook, 1987; Silvera,

pervasive ones, there is currently no theoretical model that

Lavack, & Kropp, 2008). For

can support it since no research has tested the interplay of

Verplanken, and van Knippenberg (2009) demonstrated

materialism, hedonism and NC together on IBT. Our

that impulsive purchases were often accompanied by high-

study therefore aims to provide support for Rook and

arousal emotions such as excitement and enthusiasm, and

Fisher's (1995) definition of impulse buying by positing a

that there was a strong correlation between the occurrence

model explaining the impact of materialism, hedonism and NC on IBT in adolescents, a population particularly vulnerable to impulse buying.

instance, Herabadi,

of these emotions and IBT. Činjarević, Tatić, and Petrić (2011) investigated the influence of hedonic shopping motivations on impulse buying behaviour and found a positive effect of adventure and gratification. Thus:

To Desire: Materialism

Hypothesis 2: Hedonic shopping motivation should be Materialism

reflects

the

relative

importance

of

positively related to IBT.

acquiring and possessing material objects in a person's life. According to Richins and Dawson (1992), materialism is

However, an individual's tendency to satisfy his/her

"the importance ascribed to the ownership and acquisition

hedonic needs through impulse buying does not only

of material goods in achieving major life goals or desired

result from her drive for positive experiences - evidence

states" (p. 304). Materialism has been shown to be related

indicates that impulse buying is often related to negative

to compulsive buying with numerous studies reporting a

emotions (Silvera et al., 2008), and, as a consequence,

positive association between these two variables (Dittmar,

certain people try to improve their mood through impulse

2005; Rindfleisch, Burroughs, & Denton, 1997). Although

buying, which they consider as a rewarding experience.

most studies in this field investigated the relationship

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES AND IMPULSE BUYING

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Verplanken and Sato (2011) argue that impulse buying

advertisements than by the strength of the argument in

is a form of self-regulatory behaviour that can either serve

the advertisement message. Given that impulsive buying

as a promotion motive (i.e. to obtain positive outcomes,

behaviour is characterized by a lack of deliberation and

such as positive emotions) or as a prevention motive (i.e. to

planning (Rook, 1987; Verplanken & Herabadi, 2001), a

avoid negative outcomes, such as low self-esteem).

negative relationship between NC and IBT is expected. To

Hausman (2000) developed a hedonic consumption scale

our knowledge, the only study that directly examined the

comprising the factors of novelty and entertainment, but

relationship between NC and IBT is that of Verplanken

also emotional lift, thereby adding to the conception that

and Herabadi (2001), yet no significant correlation

hedonic consumption can serve the purpose of mitigating

between these authors' IBT scale and NC was found

negative affect or low self-esteem. Based on these

despite their results going in the right direction. Since the

observations, it is expected that hedonic shopping

authors used a different IBT scale and because their

motivation represents the mechanism through which

sample size was relatively small, it seems plausible to

materialism (which is associated with low self-esteem)

further explore this relation and thus we postulate:

manifests itself and affects IBT. Thus: Hypothesis 4: NC should be negatively related to IBT. Hypothesis 3: Materialism is expected to affect IBT through its effect on hedonic shopping motivation (see

Furthermore, high NC is expected to attenuate the effect of materialism and hedonism because high NC

Figure 1).

consumers have an intrinsic motivation to process product information, a process that should interfere with the tendency to impulse buy:

Hedonism

Hypothesis 5: NC is expected to moderate the

Need for Cognition Materialis m

relationship between materialism and IBT.

IBT

Figure 1. A graphical representation of the mediation postulated in Hypothesis 3.

Hypothesis 6: NC is expected to moderate the relationship between hedonic shopping motivation and IBT.

Adolescents’ Vulnerability to IBT Without Reflection: Need for Cognition Need for cognition is the tendency to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive activity (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982). In research on consumer behaviour, results suggest that high NC individuals develop their attitudes towards products on the basis of elaboration of product attributes, whereas low NC individuals are more susceptible to peripheral cues (Haugtvedt, Petty, & Cacioppo, 1992; Zhang, 1996). For instance, Zhang (1996) showed that low NC individuals were more persuaded by humor in

Marketers are increasingly targeting adolescents. Furthermore, in most countries, adolescents grow up in a culture of consumerism, which makes them more prone to engage in buying behaviour (Bush, Martin, & Bush, 2004). Shopping has been identified as a daily routine for adolescents (Lin & Chuang, 2005). Adolescents have more spare time and enjoy shopping more than their parents (Taylor & Cosenza, 2002). Also, when they shop, they do so with peers. Luo (2005) has shown that shopping with peers increases impulse purchasing by reducing risk perception and uncertainty (Kiecker & Hartman, 1993),

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and by increasing the buyer’s confidence that a wise

English by another person, after which the accuracy of the

purchase decision was made (Kiecker & Hartman, 1994).

translation was checked by the researcher. We will use the

Lin and Chen (2012) examined impulse buying among

following scales:

adolescents and found that high susceptibility to peer influence led to greater impulse buying.

Impulse buying tendencies. Participants' IBT will be measured using the scale by Rook and Fisher (1995), a

Method

nine-item scale that measures buying impulsiveness with items such as “I often buy things without thinking”.

Sample Participants will be adolescents (ages 13-18) recruited from one high school in six European cities: Zagreb (Croatia), Gödöllő (Hungary), Warsaw (Poland), Belgrade (Serbia), Almería (Spain), and Geneva (Switzerland). Each sample will consist of around 200 participants. The research hypotheses will be tested in each sample individually. The choice of the locations for recruiting the participants was primarily related to the proximity of the respective researchers. No preference was given to which types of high schools were contacted for the study. Several high schools were approached and those that first authorized the data collection were the ones selected. Given the different regulations for conducting studies in high schools throughout the countries represented in the present research, the specific administrative procedures for obtaining approval from the high schools varied for each country.

Materials

Hedonic Consumption Scale. We will measure hedonic shopping motives with the Hedonic Consumption Scale (Hausman, 2000), a seven-item scale that measures hedonic tendencies in consumers with items such as “I get a real ’high’ from shopping”. The Hedonic Consumption Scale incorporates the Fun scale developed by Faber and O'Guinn (1988), the Novelty Scale originally developed by Unger (1981) and several items suggested by interview data. Materialism. The Material Values Scale (Richins, 2004) is an 18-item scale that measures materialism in consumers. An example of an item would be “Some of the most important achievements in life include acquiring material possessions”. Need for cognition. We will use the Need for Cognition Short Form Scale by Cacioppo, Petty, and Kao (1984), an 18-item scale, which uses items such as “I really enjoy a task that involves coming up with new solutions to problems”. Each item of these scales can be scored on a five-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5

The data for this study will be obtained through a

(strongly agree).

questionnaire combining published scales as well as questions developed specifically for the current study.

Consumption habit questions. The questionnaire

Since no versions of the published scales existed in any of

contains a section of 10 questions on participants'

the languages spoken by the participants of this study, the

consumption habits, for example "When I shop, I shop

scales were translated using the method of back

alone", "Do you go to shopping centers and if so, how

translation (Brislin, 1970). First, the scales were translated

often?", or " How much money do you on average have to

into each country’s native language (Croatian, Hungarian,

spend on your own every month (e.g. pocket money, gift

French, Polish, Serbian, and Spanish) by the respective

money, money from jobs)?". These questions have been

bilingual researcher, then they were translated back into

developed specifically for our study.

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES AND IMPULSE BUYING Socio-demographic questions. The last section of the

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Practical

questionnaire includes 11 socio-demographic questions such as gender, age, years of education, nationality,

During the initiation of the present research project at

education and parents' occupation. This section was

the EFPSA European Summer School in Portugal in 2012,

created for the purpose of our research.

the members of the research group developed an action

Procedure Participants will be asked to fill out the questionnaire in the classroom. Depending on the preference of the teacher, this will occur either before the class begins or once it has ended. Also depending on the high school's preference, either the respective researcher will conduct the data collection in the classrooms, or the school will distribute the questionnaires among its teachers who will then ask their students to participate in the study. Participation will be voluntary and anonymous: the high schools will be informed about this and it will also be indicated in the questionnaire.

Ethical Considerations

plan as well as a schedule in order to facilitate carrying out the necessary tasks. The schedule pinned down deadlines and important steps needed to take in order to meet these deadlines, while allowing for unexpected delays, such as the process of obtaining ethical approval taking longer than expected. The action plan includes bullet points with tasks to complete. At the European Summer School and during the following weeks, we agreed upon preferred ways of communication, e.g. using mailing lists, shared virtual storage of documents, and monthly Skype meetings. We designated a Communications Officer (CO) who is responsible for ensuring an efficient communication between group members, as well as between the group and external actors such as the Research Officer from the Junior Researcher Programme (JRP). The group is

Due to the method of data collection (questionnaires),

supervised by a PhD candidate who has been selected by

and the nature of the questions, no potential harm or

the JRP team, and the supervisor is responsible for

discomfort was identified for the participants. Therefore no

coordinating and guiding the academic aspects of the

significant ethical issues were needed to take into

research. We also designated a Lead Analyst who is

consideration. However, national guidelines of ethical

responsible for managing the data (e.g. creating the

consideration for each participating country were followed.

database template, keeping the data uncorrupted, etc.).

Ethical approval was obtained in each country separately from the researchers' respective universities.

In order to facilitate the working process with regard to the different schedules of the group members, the

In order to obtain informed consent from participants in the present study, all participants, and in certain cases

workload has been divided and each group member was assigned one or more tasks to be responsible for.

their parents, were fully informed about the aim and procedure of the research. Participants were informed that

The only expenses of the research have been incurred

their participation is voluntary and that their answers are

by printing the questionnaires. We have applied for

anonymous. In Geneva, the participants were asked to sign

funding through grants and organizations, with no success

consent forms before filling out the questionnaire.

thus far. Gathering data from six countries with different native languages required us to translate the scales and questionnaires that were used in the research. It is

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noteworthy to point out that the ethical considerations

comparing the samples from many diverse countries will

concerning the research design required us to gain

lead us to a fuller conclusion of the postulated research

parental approval in several countries, which has

questions.

prolonged the data collection process.

Current Status of the Project Thus far, ethical approval has been obtained from the University of Zagreb (Croatia), the University of Budapest

This manuscript is part of the Work in Progress special edition

(Hungary), the University of Warsaw (Poland), the

of JEPS and was developed under a research project of EFPSA's

University of Belgrade (Serbia), Lund University (Sweden)

Junior Researcher Programme cohort of 2012-2013.

and the University of Geneva (Switzerland). Ethical approval for the entire project has been obtained from the

References

University of Porto (Portugal). Before beginning the data collection, a pilot test conducted on ten adolescents from each country was

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Prospective Discussion Our prospect is to gather data as scheduled in six countries, thereby enabling us to confirm or reject our

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